Thursday, September 01, 2005

Oh yeah...THIS thing!

Boy...I could have been blogging up a storm last week...if my hotel room had a non-dial-up internet connection.

Folks, I've just come back from my first time ever being in Louisiana. Guess I picked a hell of a week to be there, eh?

I got hired to do a gig from Sunday to Thursday (today) at a Casino down there. That was great! I went down with Tara, Matt, and Alida and we all got our own rooms...we got free food all week at the Casino food court or buffet...and we got to watch the sad tale of Hurricane Katrina.

I'll try and sum things up.

Sunday: We arrive early, go over the rallies we're going to do (5 rallies) and eat. At this point, Hurricane Katrina is off shore and predicted to make landfall the next day (? I can't even remember if it hit on Monday or Tuesday now). We're unsure if it will still go N by NE or got straight N, or worse, head N by NW towards us.

Monday: We are up early for a 9:00am rally. Two more rallies throughout the day. I still can't remember if it hit the coast Monday or Tuesday. It was Monday. The weather out by us is fine. Anytime we are not doing the shows, we are glued to the Weather Channel and CNN. People who heeded the warnings were slowly showing up to stay in the hotel at the Casino.

Tuesday: More gigs, more people showing up, more chaos on the TV.

Wednesday: We teach some classes, there are more people showing up. Usually the luggage they have consists of plastic bags filled with what looks like whatever they could grab in a hurry. Everyone is sort of walking around sharing stories. They are told they can't go back to New Orleans until Monday, and that will only be to grab what they can of their belongings and leave. News of looting and shooting.

Thursday: Early morning workshops and we leave for the airport. I was worried we wouldn't make it out because there was thunder and lightning. We made it. I'm home.

This whole thing is insane. I was in the state, but I wasn't close to it. It's scary. Human survival mode is kicking in and not in a safe way.

Please send good thoughts in whatever way you normally do to Cayne Collier's relatives. I know he was from there and I haven't heard from him whether he knows if they evacuated or not.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Coz, this is your cousin Diann from PA. Your dad may have mentioned me in passing or maybe not. I am glad to hear that you and your friends made it out safely and my prayers are with Cayne and his family.

Hopefully, you will make it to Pittsburgh and I will be sure to be in the front row... well, maybe not the first row.

Anonymous said...

Hurricanes are never fun, and I'm glad you are doing alright. I hope your gigs went well, and I will send my well wishes to Cayne. He is actually at ImprovAcadia, so I'll make sure to send the message from you to him.

-declan

Anonymous said...

Way to be not hurt or dead or hurt. Yay Rance!

Btw, I found your blog.

Raaaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Also. You're the human survival mode.